Horace Ové, Pioneering Black British Filmmaker, Dies at 86

Horace Ov, director of Pressure (1976), the first full-length Black British film,died on Sept. 16. He was 86.

Ovs son Zak posted on Facebook: Our loving father Horace, took his last breath at 4.30 this morning, while sleeping peacefully. I hope his spirit is free now after many years of suffering with Alzheimers. You are forever missed, and forever loved. Rest in Peace Pops, and thank you for everything.

Born in Trinidad in 1936, Ovs moved to London in 1960 to study interior design. A stint in Rome, during which he worked as a film extra including on Joseph Mankiewiczs Cleopatra (1963), he was exposed to the work of Federico Fellini and Vittorio De Sica, who would become infuences. He returned to Britain in 1965 and covered social and political events in the country while being a student at the London Film School. During the 1960s and 1970s he was one of the foremost chroniclers of the Black Power movement and counterculture in London, with portraits of Michael X, Stokely Carmichael, Darcus Howe, John Lennon, Yoko Ono and the Caribbean Artists Movement, and the nascent Notting Hill Carnival.

Ov directed short The Art of the Needle (1966), followed by documentary short Baldwins N***** (1968), a record of a visit to the U.K. by the renowned U.S. author and activist James Baldwin that captures him addressing a group of young people at the West Indian Students Centre in London. OvsReggae (1971) was the first in-depth documentary on Black music and reggae in the U.K.

Pressure (1976), heralded as the first full-length Black British film, is an exploration of the concerns faced by emerging second-generation West Indians in Britain.

In an era when authentic Black narratives were underrepresented in mainstream media, Ov pushed boundaries at the BBC and Channel 4, creating films that portrayed a multicultural Britain, including A Hole in Babylon (1979), The Garland (1981) and Playing Away (1985). During this period Ov made two documentaries back-to-back in India for Channel 4. Dabbawallahs(1985), filmed in Mumbai (then Bombay) is a portrait of the men and women who convey lunches to the office workers in a race against time. Who Shall We Tell? (1985) is Ovs Grierson Award-nominated documentary about the aftermath of the Bhopal gas tragedy in December 1984, a first-person portrait told by thepeople of Bhopal themselves, describing their lives before and after the lethal gas-leak.

Ovs work has inspired a generation of diverse Black British filmmakers and artists, including Menelik Shabazz, John Akomfrah, Isaac Julien, Julien Henriques, Ngozi Onwurah, Steve McQueen, Amma Asante, Raine Allen-Mille and Dionne Edwards. Ov was knighted in 2022 for his services to British cinema and media.

The late filmmakers work is the subject of an upcoming major BFI Southbank retrospective season titled Power to the People: Horace Ovs Radical Vision. A 4K restored version of Pressure will receive a joint restoration world premiere at the BFI London Film Festival and the New York Film Festival on Oct. 11. This precedes the films U.K.-wide cinema release by BFI Distribution and on BFI Player on Nov. 3.

The retrospective season (Oct. 23-Nov. 30) will commence with an illustrated talk and a re-release preview of Pressure. The program will include films like Baldwins N****** (1969), Reggae (1970), King Carnival (1973), Skateboard Kings (1978), Black Safari (1972), amongst others. The event will also screen films that influenced Ovs cinematic style, such as La Dolce Vita (1960), Bicycle Thieves (1948) and Pather Panchali (1955).

The U.K.s Film and TV Charity has a 50,000 ($62,000) Horace Ov Grant to help the Black and global majority of people working behind the scenes in film, TV and cinema to access opportunity and navigate barriers to career progression.

The BFI posted on X: Were deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Sir Horace Ov. Photographer, painter, writer, and pioneering filmmaker, Ovs career spanned four decades and encompassed cutting-edge drama and documentary. He worked outside of the system, showing generations of Black filmmakers that it could be done, and that their voices have power. Our thoughts are with his friends and family at this time.